Stories
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The growth of wireless instrumentation technology has provided new ways to apply temperature measurement sensors, combined with personal computers, to collect, tabulate, and analyze data. For complex,...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Within a digital world, the parameters of real-world information (temperature, voltage, current, speed, flow, pressure, distance, etc.) used for process communications and control are...
Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Winner of an HP Workstation
Small-Area Thin-Film Heat Flux Sensor
Mahmoud AssaadThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Akron, OH
This sensor is being used in tires of all types and sizes, and has also...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
Embedded systems and desktop PC's have had a love hate relationship over the years. The PC has been the source of significant technological advances that have enabled embedded...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The quest to bring lockstep efficiency to labor intensive factory production at first relied on mechanical ingenuity. Over time, as reliable and cost-effective microprocessor...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
In spectrometry, the more light gathered the better the results. Yet in many applications, both military and commercial, the need to protect instruments or operators from harsh...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Electromagnetically Clean Solar Arrays
The term “electromagnetically clean solar array” (“EMCSA”) refers to a panel that contains a planar array of solar photovoltaic cells and that, in comparison with a functionally equivalent solar-array panel of a type heretofore used on spacecraft, (1) exhibits less electromagnetic interference to and...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
To ensure a system’s accuracy meets required needs, system error budgets must be an integral part of system design. Considerations should include necessary levels of accuracy for system...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Electromagnetically Clean Solar Arrays
The term “electromagnetically clean solar array” (EMCSA) refers to a panel that contains a planar array of solar photovoltaic cells. The cells are laminated with shielding, narrow-current-loop wiring, and structural supports. EMCSAs could be useful in applications that require limited electromagnetic interference.
Application Briefs: Motion Control
Maxon’s MCD EPOS integrated power drive was used by a wine and liquor bottling operation to control the cutting of shrink-wrapped film over the bottleneck and cork or cap.
Briefs: Materials
Capillography (from the Latin capillus, “hair”, and the Greek graphein, “to write”) is a recently conceived technique for forming mats of nanofibers into useful patterns. The concept was inspired by...
Briefs: Medical
A unique and customizable machine-vision and image-data-processing technique has been developed for use in automated identification of cells that are optimal for patch clamping. [Patch...
Briefs: Information Technology
Supplier Management System
Supplier Management System (SMS) allows for a consistent, agency-wide performance rating system for suppliers used by NASA. This version (2.0) combines separate databases into one central database that allows for the sharing of supplier data. Information extracted from the NBS/Oracle database can be used to generate...
Articles: Electronics & Computers
The need for commercial off the shelf (COTS) single board computer (SBC) products continues to grow as higher processing, smaller footprints and lower power requirements become more critical. For...
Application Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a methodology for analyzing potential problems early in the product development cycle where it is easier to take action to overcome potential issues, thereby...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
A circuit and method for transmitting and receiving on-off-keyed (OOK) signals with fractional signal-to-noise ratios uses available high-temperature silicon-on-insulator (SOI) components...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
Companies that manufacture products ultimately used by consumers — interior trim for cars, vinyl siding for homes, decorative stone for landscaping, interior wall paints,...
Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
During design and manufacturing, optical systems and lenses are toleranced and tested to ensure the smallest possible performance error. Matching most optics manufacturing...
Briefs: Materials
Nanowicks are dense mats of nanoscale fibers that are expected to enable the development of a variety of novel capillary pumps, filters, and fluidic control devices. Nanowicks make it possible obtain a variety of novel effects,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Electronic circuitry has been developed to serve as an interface between an electronic tongue and digital input/output boards in a laptop computer that is used to control the tongue and...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Electroform/Plasma-Spray Laminates for X-Ray Optics
Electroform/ plasma-spray laminates have shown promise as lightweight, strong, low-thermal-expansion components for x-ray optics. The basic idea is to exploit both (1) the well-established art of fabrication of optical components by replication and (2) plasma spraying as a means of reinforcing a...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A method and apparatus for mapping between the positions of fibers at opposite ends of incoherent fiber-optic bundles have been invented to enable the use of such bundles to transmit images in...
Briefs: Medical
The figure schematically depicts a system of electronic hardware and software that noninvasively tracks the direction of a person’s gaze in real time. Like prior commercial noninvasive eye-tracking...
Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
As the volume of consumer electronics increases, semiconductor fabrication plants are manufacturing larger and larger wafers to handle the demand (e.g., 300 mm substrates). The escalating...
Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The 2006 NASA Tech Briefs (NTB) and Photonics Tech Briefs (PTB) Readers’ Choice Product of the Year Awards were presented recently by the editors of NTB and PTB at an awards dinner in...
Articles: Photonics/Optics
Like most mature industries, the automotive industry is highly competitive. Customers demand quality, security, and economy. Competition requires increasingly fast times to market for new...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Manufacturing Large Membrane Mirrors at Low Cost
Relatively inexpensive processes have been developed for manufacturing lightweight, wide-aperture mirrors that consist mainly of reflectively coated, edge-supported polyimide membranes. The polyimide and other materials in these mirrors can withstand the environment of outer space, and the mirrors...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Lion Precision and Professional Instruments, St. Paul, Minnesota
High-performance materials such as ceramics, optics, and alloy steels are manufactured using abrasive grinding...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., a subcontractor of Societatea Nationala Nucleoelectrica S.A. (SNN) of Romania, contracted Badger Meter to model, test, and produce a set of precision valves...
Top Stories
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Going for Gold in Winter Olympic Curling
Blog: Energy
Batteries that Can Withstand the Cold
Blog: Physical Sciences
INSIDER: Power
Fast Charging of Electric Cars Without Cables
Blog: Design
Making Tungsten Carbide a More Viable Alternative
Blog: Energy
Meet ULIS: A Power Module with Unprecedented Efficiency, Power Density,...
Webcasts
Upcoming Webinars: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Beyond AI-Copy-Paste Engineering: Advanced AI-Integration Success...
Upcoming Webinars: Test & Measurement
Battery Abuse Testing: Pushing to Failure
Upcoming Webinars: AR/AI
A FREE Two-Day Event Dedicated to Connected Mobility
Upcoming Webinars: RF & Microwave Electronics
Choosing the Right N-Port Strategy: Multiport VNAs vs. Switch...
Upcoming Webinars: Power
2026 Battery & Electrification Summit (Online)
Upcoming Webinars: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The Over-Engineering Trap: Aligning Custom Equipment Specs with...
